


Putting Right, What Once Went Wrong

by IowaGuy1979



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Other, what should have happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:07:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26001640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IowaGuy1979/pseuds/IowaGuy1979
Summary: Nothing, none of what Max did mattered.William of Ockham might have had the right idea.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	Putting Right, What Once Went Wrong

Max sat in the girl’s bathroom at Blackwell, hidden behind the stalls. 

Shouting. A gunshot. Then panic.

Max’s eyes filled with tears, as her vision faded to white.

She found herself standing by the Lighthouse, wearing a black dress. She sighed heavily, and walked down the trail. It was time to face the consequence of her action, a life without Chloe Price.

A few days later, she was eating breakfast in the Two Whales. Joyce’s smile seemed as fragile as crystal. Having your daughter murdered tended to dampen your outlook on life, though, Max thought, darkly.

After eating, and Joyce refusing her money, she walked down the boardwalk. A rotting smell hit her nose, and she rushed to the nearest trashcan to vomit.

She heard two men, speaking. “Holy shit! Those two beached whales, that’s.. fucking wow!”

“I know, man. Some old guy said he'd never seen anything like this."

Panic ran screaming through Max’s mind. The beached whales? Hadn’t the snowfall been first? “..what the shitting fuck?”, she whispered.

Max became vigilant about keeping an eye out for the signs that had occurred in the other timeline. The next night, she saw the twin moons in the sky. ‘No, it can’t be! I can’t have saved Chloe for nothing!’, she thought. ‘It’ll be okay, the storm isn’t going to happen. Because Chloe...C….Chloe’s dead’

Max was at the lighthouse. It had been one week since Chloe’s death.

And the storm was here, again.

“NO! I did it! I killed her, to save this worthless, shitty town!”, Max screamed. “WHY ARE YOU HERE? This was all for nothing?”

Max’s heart stuck in her throat. Sadness and rage burned in her stomach, as she saw the waterspout become a tornado. It tore through Arcadia Bay, and Max could see many buildings torn from the ground, smashed to splinters in the vortex.

After what seemed like hours, Max looked at her phone.

20 minutes. It had taken only 20 minutes for the town’s destruction. Only 20 minutes to remind Max that no matter what she did, she was completely powerless in the end.

Barely functioning, she walked into the giant debris field that had once been the town she grew up in. After a solid two hours of searching, she found no survivors. Not a single building was standing.

Max Caulfield was the only survivor of the storm. And she would carry the scars of this, of failing her best friend, of failing this undeserving town, for the rest of her life.

“Chloe died, and the storm still came. What if….what if it isn’t Chloe’s death that caused it? If my powers made it happen, then that means that I…. I shouldn’t have them. If the storm requires a death, it should me mine.”, Max whispered.

She dug through the photos she had in her messenger bag. She had grabbed a bunch of them, yesterday, just in case this happened.

As she sorted through, all she could see were ones of her in Seattle, or her with Chloe.

But, at the very bottom, was one that she hadn’t taken.

It was very old, and slightly faded. She hadn’t even known she had it.

It was of her, very young. Only a few days before she met Chloe, if she remembered rightly. She was standing on a sidewalk, next to a park her dad had often taken her to. She could see a busy street on the other side of the sidewalk.

This was it! It would tear her parents apart to lose her, no matter when it happened.  
But, since this was before she met Chloe, at least Chloe would be spared knowing about her death.

She took a deep breath, and concentrated. Everything faded to white.

The first thing Max noticed was, how big and loud everything was. A side effect of being transported to a younger, smaller body, she guessed.

Her dad had just finished taking her picture. “Looking good, Pumpkin!”, he smiled.

As she looked around, she saw the busy street next to her, and an ice cream wagon, further down from her father.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, Maxine?”

“Can I have ice cream?”

“Sure, you’ve been a good girl today!”

“Chloe- I mean, Chocolate’s good, please?”

Nodding, he turned to the ice cream man.

Max took a breath, and quickly ran toward the street. She had just gotten out into it, when she heard her dad’s scream.

She felt herself bounce off of something huge and metal. Then, pain. Pain almost unimaginable

She felt at peace, though. Yes, her family would be devastated. But, she somehow knew, that both her beloved pirate Captain and the town would be saved. Chloe would meet Rachel, and the void left by William’s death would be filled.

As everything faded to black, she felt a sense of rightness. She was paying the Universe what she owed it, making things right.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a comment Tangent101 left on my story "Forever".
> 
> If Max's powers are the cause of all of it, then the simplest course is to stop her from having them.
> 
> The title is taken from the intro to a show I loved as a kid: Quantum Leap


End file.
